After Aging, Smoke Within This Date

[d4k23]

I am jumping the gun a lot, but with the McClelland situation I have to ask the question. When you age a tobacco, how quickly do you have to smoke it before it goes south?
I'm wondering age for a year, smoke after XX days of opening. Age for 5 years, smoke after XX. Age after 10? 20?

 

[Civil War]

As long as it is well sealed after opening (ie different container) doesn't much matter

 

[josephcross]

Ive often heard that when you crack an old tin you should smoke it up quickly, as it will fade in flavour. I have yet to experience a tobacco over 5 years old so I dont know. I have a tin of Dunhill flake that is nearly 4 years old, and it tastes the same as when I opened it.

 

[Chasing Embers]

I've jarred 2012 ODF from a tin opened last year and it's still fine.

 

[ashdigger]

In my humble opinion if it's aged up to about 5-7 years just smoke it at any rate. I've have a bunch of baccy from 10 to 90 years old that turns to mummy dust within days.

 

[sablebrush52]

Depends on the type of tobacco you're cellaring. Virginias, burleys and Orientals can age for decades before going south. Latakia loses some of it's punch after a decade, and continues to fade until it's mostly gone after 25-30 years. Really old blends, 30+ years may be marvelous when first opened, but they can fade out and go flat within a few days after being exposed to fresh oxygen.

 

[dottiewarden]

I've been pleasantly surprised by some 4 - 5 year old tins of light aromatics by Mac Barens. My favorite was a tin of Navy Mixture and recently an old tin of Symphony. No deterioration was experienced after opening, however I smoked through each tin within a month or so. I now prefer the dusty tins kicking around the local B&Ms.

 

[d4k23]

Mummy dust sounds like a very unfortunate phenomenon after waiting for a tin to age. I like my fresh Latakias right now, so will be curious to let an English I enjoy age for a bit and see if the effect of mellowing is more or less enjoyable. The future is very exciting in my tobacco world!
And I'll think I'll happily sit on my few VAs and wait for that magic moment. Thank you all for the helpful input!
And @Sagebrush, you always have good insight. I feel like 9 times out of 10 in my forum searches, you pop up and have a way with explanations. Very much appreciated!

 

[hawky454]

I think really old blends tend to degrade really quickly after opening the tin but in my experience anything 20 years and younger lasts just fine after opening the tin and in fact I always enjoy them much more 3 to 4 weeks after I’ve opened the tin as they really start to bloom! I always hear people say you should smoke it up as quick as possible once you open the tin but in my experience I think that is bad advice because you end up missing out on the developing flavors that really unfold as they are re-introduced to oxygen. Like I said though, really old blends (30 plus years) will degrade pretty quick and that is when I try to smoke it up in a speedy manner.

 

[d4k23]

Thanks Hawky. It seems like there is always a chance of striking gold when opening a tin with real age (or have the chance opening a dud). And it's not a straight forward task to maximize the flavors.
I'm 30 now, so if I can make my 40th hold tight until I'm 50, should be the start of a good year!

 

[hawky454]

Absolutely, d4k23 I was around your age when I first started smoking a pipe myself (29) and I’ll say you’ve started at a good age! Just think what your cellar will be like when you retire! Keep up with it now and I promise you won’t have any reservations about the money you dropped on it when you were in your early thirties. The only problem that I faced was my tastes have drastically changed from when I first took up the pipe but I’m still glad to have a wide cellar as I like variety and I’d end up getting bored with a deep cellar, that being said, I’m now starting to cellar deep instead of wide. Another thing is, it’s amazing how much prices have gone up since I started cellaring back in 2009! It’s almost like everytime I go back to a website to shop the prices just keep climbing! Cellar now and you’ll be glad you did when we start seeing Canadia-like prices! Scary!!!

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Hit or miss, depending on what it is, or how the stars align. I wasn't crazy about the earthy bitterness of C&D's Briar Fox when I first tried it years ago, but I did set back the rest of the bulk block. When I opened it recently after setting for five years, It smelled wonderfully fruity, and the smoke was much more sweet without the bitterness. But, because I had crammed so much into the jar (not being able to smoke it all quickly), by week three the wonderful aged smell had dissipated, and it was back to bitter dirt taste. I probably won't even smoke the rest of it.
I prefer aged latakias, and there are many others that do also, and some that don't. I guess it just depends on your tastes. Greg Pease posts pictures and descriptions on Instagram all the time of ancient tins of latakia blends, and he designs his blends to get better with age, being the initial guru and proponent of cellars. I do think the latakia melds into the blend more (some call it dissipate), but I prefer the more balanced flavors. I opened a nearly 18 year old tin of McConnell's Oriental, and it was divine, but after a couple of weeks, it was just flat and flavorless. One of the nice things about Pipe Clubs is that you can share something like this with a whole group of friends, and not let any of it go to waste.

Also, Pipe Clubs allows you to get together and purchase old tins, and try things like this to see what you like and what you don't. There is no universal way that appeals to everyone. Heck, there are some that don't even like Penzance and some that really like Carter Hall. So, tastes differ.
There may be some on here that have been influenced into setting back dozens of pounds of things to latter find out that they don't like aged blends.

 

[barepipe]

I read that GLP said 40 years + for Virginia’s and about 20-30years for English before they go South.
Check this link, it was posted in the forum before by cleverer people than me. It has a ton of info on aging.
http://web.archive.org/web/20080118193947/http://agingfaq.nocturne.org:80/index.php

 

[9mmpuffer]

I read that GLP said 40 years + for Virginia’s and about 20-30years for English before they go South.

This sounds like a good guideline.

I went crazy in 2007-2010 cellaring, I find that every tin I open gets better and better. Age definitely does wonders for pipe tobacco, especially the VAs.

 

[Civil War]

Agreed, this sounds like a good guideline.

 

[hawky454]

Sounds like I need to be following GL Pease on Instagram.

 

[hoosierpipeguy]

I managed to procure some 15 and 10 year old 5100. It is quite good but to be perfectly honest, I miss some of the sharper flavors with newer 5100. These were stored in a mason jar. I don't have enough personal experience to make factual statements but I am going to speculate there's a point of diminishing returns on aging. I've smoke a lot of aged Cubans and after 6 to 8 years, I always thought they had gone downhill somewhat. Yeah, they're smooth but so is a Macanudo. I prefer some strength and sharp flavors. I'd see other people raving while I was thinking they had a placebo affect due to the novelty. From my limited experience, mostly with Virginia and VaPer blends, there's a substantial change in the first two to three years and more around 5 years, for the good. After that, perhaps not so much. And that could very well be a personal preference thing. I'm smoking some SG BBF from 2012 as I type this. It is very good and exceptionally smooth but some of the fresh, citrus flavors I get from a newer tin are distinctly muted.
I hope my theory is flawed because I'm aggressively cellaring to hedge against brands being discontinued, the FDA regulations and internet sales sanctions.

 

[Civil War]

I'm aggressively cellaring to hedge against brands being discontinued, the FDA regulations and internet sales sanctions

Yes, the potential Tobacco Apocalypse

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Sounds like I need to be following GL Pease on Instagram.

He is an excellent photographer. But, I think that even he might suggest that we use any suggestion, even his, with a grain of salt. Not that they are not good guidelines, but that making rules and hard-fast blanket assumptions might not be a smart thing to do, especially with something that has one foot squarely planted in art and subjectivity.

 

[sablebrush52]

It all depends on whether or not you like how a blend changes as it ages. People like to say that blends get better with aging. I disagree with that statement. Blends change as they age. Whether that change is an improvement is dependent on the taste of the smoker.
Pease has written on this and I often suggest to smokers that they refer to his faq - Pease on aging. The biggest changes happen in the first 5 years. After that the changes are more gradual.
If you like the sharper flavors of younger tobaccos, if you like being able to pick out the various components in a blend, then aging may not be for you, at least long term aging. One of the aspects of the changes that happen with long term aging is that the components marry over time, creating a unified flavor profile with less variation from sip to sip.
I like the effect that aging has on some blends, like Escudo, which I also like fresh, but find it less of a benefit with others, like Stonehaven. I prefer Haddo's with a decade of aging on it because the bit of harshness that I experience with it when fresh is smoothed out. And I've smoked certain vintages of Christmas Cheer fresh and with many years of aging and haven't found that much of an "improvement" with the added years, or none whatsoever, just a change in the flavor.
Eventually, all blends go south. The really ancient tobaccos I've sampled over the years, 50 to 100 years old, have largely been sludge, zombie poop, wraiths, or mummy dust. Once in a while I get to experience something really remarkable, but it's very hit or miss.
And the reality is that a great number of blends are going to disappear in the next few years, so if you want to smoke them, you need to buy them when available. If aging is not for you, you can jar those blends and use a pump to remove the remaining oxygen so that they are vacuum sealed, and that will retard, though not completely stop, the aging process. The flat tins, at least the new ones, are slowly leaking from the get go, aren't going to hold up over the long term anyway, so why not jar them?